The “Atlas Rises” update finally brings the long-awaited multiplayer to No Man’s Sky.
No Man’s Sky was one of the most exciting games on the gaming market in the summer of 2016. Nobody quite knew what would be possible in this space simulation and what would not.
Because Sean Murray, the founder of Hello Games, was quite vague about his statements regarding the promising title – which led to expectations and hype skyrocketing, only to end in massive disappointment shortly after launch.
One reason was the missing multiplayer: Murray promised that one could meet other players in the gigantic universe. However, the chance of that was so slim that he did not refer to it as “multiplayer”.
Some players managed to be in the same place at the same time – and yet they did not encounter each other. Because it was indeed not possible to meet other players. This frustrated fans, and many angrily abandoned the game.
For the anniversary, a “real” multiplayer is coming
The release of No Man’s Sky is now one year ago – and a lot has happened in this year. The simulation has been expanded with many meaningful features, and numerous bugs have been fixed.
Recently, the anniversary update “Atlas Rises” (Update 1.3) was announced, which is supposed to be released soon. As reported by Eurogamer, a list of the innovations of this update appeared for a short time, but was taken offline immediately. Update: The page is now back online!
Accordingly, Atlas Rises introduces, in addition to a new and revised story and portals for fast travel, also “joint exploration”. In other words: “joint exploration”.
Here, up to 16 players can see each other and communicate with one another (via voice chat), thus exploring the universe together. The interaction with other players is currently very limited, but it is still an important first step towards cooperative multiplayer in No Man’s Sky, according to Hello Games. Other players are displayed as strange, floating orbs:
Further innovations that update 1.3 brings can be seen in this video:
There are:
- A new story
- An overhauled galaxy map
- More diverse planets with better visual quality
- You can loot crashed freighters
- A new mission system is coming
- New trading options
- An improved UI
- You can edit terrain
- Use portals for fast travel
- Improvements in space battles
- Fly low over planets
- Joint explorations
- New ships
- “Quality of Life” improvements and much more
On the official “No Man’s Sky” page, the full patch notes are listed.
Murray can indeed keep his promise a year after the release of the game that one can explore the galaxy together with other players in No Man’s Sky.
Interesting: No Man’s Sky: Multiplayer or Singleplayer – How to classify the “MMO”?
